HUNDREDS of previously unknown asteroids are likely hiding in the orbital path of Venus, NASA has shockingly revealed in a new study.

The asteroid discovery is supported by the existence of a dusty field of space debris in Venus’ orbit of the Sun. The dusty ring was first discovered by NASA’s Helios space probes in 2007 and later confirmed in 2013. Earth was found to barrel through a similar ring of dust 25 years ago, the source of which was traced to the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter. This has prompted NASA astronomer Petr Pokorny to study Venus’ orbit for the origin of its very own dust ring.

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NASA said: “Using a dozen different modelling tools to simulate how dust moves around the solar system, Pokorny modelled all the dust sources he could think of, looking for a simulated Venus ring that matched the observations.

“I think the most exciting thing about this result is it suggests a new population of asteroids

Marc Kuchner, NASA

“The list of all the sources he tried sounds like a roll call of all the rocky objects in the solar system: Main Belt asteroids, Oort Cloud comets, Halley-type comets, Jupiter-family comets, recent collisions in the asteroid belt.”

However, none of the proposed models worked, until the two researchers thought of a unique group of asteroids near Venus.

The new asteroids, would orbit the planet from a relatively large distance and often on the side of the Sun.